Around 300 politicians who control China's communist party and its 64 million members will meet from October 9 to 11 to chart the country's course for the year ahead, state media said Monday.
It is the fifth time the party's Central Committee has assembled for a plenary session since it was elected at the 15th national congress in September 1997, the official Xinhua news agency said.
The participants at the meeting -- one of the most important events in China's political calendar -- will discuss the tenth five-year plan which will guide the economy in the period from 2001 to 2005, the agency said.
The Central Committee usually does not confine itself to economics, but discusses a wide range of issues affecting the world's most populous country.
Those are issues that have already been up for preliminary discussion among a few dozen top leaders who meet for informal talks late every summer at the seaside resort of Beidaihe near Beijing.
This year the Central Committee's agenda could include Taiwan and threats to the party's power such as the Falungong spiritual movement.
Corruption is also likely to figure high on the agenda, as the meeting takes place against the background of the country's largest-ever smuggling scandal, which implicates hundreds of officials in the southeastern province of Fujian.
Deliberations of the Central Committee are kept secret, although a communiqué is usually issued at the end of the session, summarizing decisions that the party wants the public to know about.
Last year, the Central Committee met for four days in mid-September, and afterwards announced plans to push forward state enterprise reform -- BEIJING (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
